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RE: [RC] An ounce of prevention - Becky RohwerA couple years ago I was riding behind Mona Thacker in a Washington ride. We were going up a steep mountain trail. She had forgotten her breast collar that day. The cinch was loose and the saddle slid back putting the girth in the flank area. The horse reared, dumped Mona, rolled over her, then commenced to buck, kick, fall, roll, get up, and start the procedure all over again about 6 times before he finally kicked the saddle off. It was just frightening. I was back far enough that my horse and I didn't get caught in the middle of the wreck. The horse was unscathed in the end even though he had bucked and rolled through a heavy patch of black berry bushes. I got off and went to Mona. She was lying on the ground. I told her not to move while I went to look for her saddle. The horse, after loosing the saddle, just trotted up the trail back to Mona and waited there. I was wading through the bushes which were taller than me when I heard a high pitched voice yell "here it is". Mona was wading through the bushes too even though I had asked her to stay put. Luckily just at the top of the hill there was a vet check. We walked the rest of the way up the trail to the check. They radioed in that there had been an accident. Mona had hurt her shoulder. She also had a junior rider with her. It was decided that I would continue on with the junior and someone would come pick Mona and her horse up at that point. We continued on down the trail. Morgan, the junior was very concerned about Mona. I kept telling her she would be OK. We reached a place in the trail where Mona's husband was waiting for her. We stopped to talk to him. In the distance Morgan saw a rider coming. She thought it was Mona. I told her that wasn't likely. But while talking to Mona's husband, who trotted up but Mona. She was close to the end of that loop and there was no way she wasn't going to finish. I found out later that Mona had torn her rotator cuff on that fall. Toughest woman I've ever met! Also made a big believer of breast collars out of me. Becky R. - Montana =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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